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Date: 3/16/2020
WEST SPRINGFIELD – At a public hearing at the March 10 West Springfield School Committee meeting, Interim Superintendent Tim Connor presented the district’s requests for the Fiscal Year 2021 budget.
“One of the messages we need to get out to our community is who our community is,” Connor began by saying. He noted that West Springfield is ranked number four in the country for refugee resettlement per capita, averaging 161 resettlements per year between 2015 and 2019.
“With that also comes additional interventions to support families of need,” Connor said.
Students in the district speak 47 languages with 31.1 percent of students speaking a first language other than English. Connor said 44.5 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged.
At the same time, Connor said, academic achievement thresholds have “dramatically” increased.
“This is why we are one of 35 districts in the entire state that received and qualified for the higher amount of money,” through the Student Opportunity Act, Connor said. “As we have changed as a community, so fairly quickly, our achievement and our expectations around how our students meet those thresholds are starting to separate and you’re starting to see that achievement gap.”
He noted that the percentage of students with disabilities has dropped from 20.1 percent in 2015 to 18.5 percent in 2019, the drop was the result of and support from the school committee.
West Springfield’s per-pupil expenditure is among the lowest in the area. Fiscal Year 2018 saw $13,066 spent on each child in the district. Neighboring Agawam spent $15,902 per-pupil and Holyoke spent $17,145 per-pupil during that same period.
Still, Connor said he was “proud” of the work the schools are doing and noted that the district is in line with state averages in standard assessments.
The budget contains certain non-negotiable mandated costs, such as $1,204,662 in contractual raises and $220,000 in required specialist positions to meet contract requirements.
Connor said the funding for several positions currently covered with school choice funds, would need to be transferred to the LEA budget, which is funded through grants for schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families. These positions include a special education teacher for the middle school for $79,778, a special education teacher for Fausey Elementary School for $70,457 and 16 paraprofessionals across the district at a total of $287,406.
Connor asked for funding to pay for several new positions, though each new faculty member would be in service of fulfilling the six-objective district strategic plan.
Connor has requested one English Learner Instructional Coach for the elementary level and one at the secondary level, which is required under the LOOK Act for any English learner not meeting benchmarks.
Connor asked for $220,000 for school committee-approved elementary classroom specialists. A school adjustment counselor at Fausey for $60,000 was also requested. The American School Counseling Association recommends a ratio of 250 students to every counselor. Fausey has one counselor for 421 kids and a higher population of special education students than the district average.
A bilingual family liaison who would work with the newcomer families to navigate and acclimate to the public school system would cost approximately $40,000. The idea would be to “engage families as soon as they got here so we don't have folks slipping through the cracks,” Connor said.
Connor advocated for hiring two special education inclusion teachers at Coburn School for $120,000. Inclusion teachers co-teach with general education teachers to create unified classrooms. There are currently three special education inclusion teachers for 85 special education students. An additional two special education inclusion teachers were requested for West Springfield High School. Connor said math and English language arts have been identified as requiring special education inclusion teachers.
Connor said that the $50,000 grant that currently funds the Innovation Pathways program will expire on June 30. The program started with 60 students participating in advanced manufacturing has grown to over 100 students involved in college-level manufacturing, healthcare, and soon, computer science courses.
A unified basketball team for West Springfield High School would cost approximately $10,000 and would consist of with and without disabilities on the same team competing against other unified teams.
Connor is hoping to add a second special education evaluation team leader (ETL)/administrator for $100,000 to work between John Ashley Kindergarten and Cowing Early Childhood. He said the workload has quadrupled over the past 15 years and the single faculty member responsible for 142 students plus psychological evaluations.
Similarly, the middle school has a single special education ETL who manages a caseload of 149 students. A second ETL would cost $60,000 at the school.
During the public hearing on the budget resident Erin Luchenbill said all students need art, music and physical education. Resident Adrienne Latham said, “We need to ensure that all West Springfield children have reasonably sized classes,” and schools need additional Chromebooks. “Our higher-performing elementary school students are not being appropriately challenged,” she told the school committee.
The public budget hearing was continued to April 27.
Fausey Elementary School Principal Myriam Skolnick led teachers and students from the school in explaining how the school has embraced the writing T.E.A.C.H. method, which stands for topic sentence, evidence, analysis, conclusion, and “high five.” The “high five” is the way students edit their own work through rereading, double–checking for capital letters, punctuation, spelling and neatness in their paragraphs.
Vice Principal John Thoma explained the method’s focus on continuity and engagement. Using the T.E.A.C.H. method school-wide, students will hear the same prompts from grade to grade and streamlined lessons will include T.E.A.C.H. in all curriculum areas. He said that continuity improves student achievement and make grade transitions easier.
The focus on engagement includes using developmentally-appropriate materials that can be used in all activities, including at the Boys & Girls Club.
Students from each grade level explained how they use the T.E.A.C.H. method at their respective grade-level. The method is introduced slowly across grade levels allowing children to build on prior learning.
During the superintendent’s report, Connor praised his “rockstar administrators;” Peter Gillen, won the Massachusetts Secondary Administration Association’s “Middle School Principal of the Year” award in 2019; West Springfield High School Principal Dr. Vito Perrone, winner of the Massachusetts School Counselors Association’s “Administrator of the Year” award for 2020; West Springfield Middle School Vice-Principal Nicole Manning, who won the New England League of Middle Schools’ “A+ Administrator” award for 2020; Director of Athletics Glenn Doulette, who earned the Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s “Certified Master Athletic Administrator” honor and the director of Foodservice Dario Nardi/Nutrition Department, which one the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s “Breakfast Challenge Award.”
Announcements included that the new student online registration portal for the 2020-2021 school year is open at wsps.org, superintendent finalist interviews will be conducted March 24, beginning at 6 p.m in the Town Hall Auditorium and the district is looking for substitutes and paraprofessionals.
During the public comment period, a resident complained about the traffic and parking at Fausey Elementary School, calling it “extremely congested.” She said that parents are parking in no-parking zones, on the island, in the bus pull out and behind cars in the Fausey parking lot due to inadequate parking. Mayor Will Reichelt said engineers are currently working on a solution.
A father expressed his disappointment to the school committee that the high school student’s trip to Ireland in the spring has been canceled. Reichelt told him that due to the state of emergency in Massachusetts, the district had to do what was best for the community as a whole. He said they were working with Aer Lingus to reschedule flights to November or perhaps next April.